The present invention relates to a method for producing a tobacco flavor-tasting article, and more particularly to a method for producing a tobacco flavor-tasting article wherein tobacco flavor can be enjoyed by using a tobacco flavor-generating material other than tobacco materials.
In order to improve tobacco flavor, various flavor-generating materials have been developed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 53-12598 discloses that a thermally coagulating polysaccharide mainly composed of .beta.-1,3-glucose bonding is added to tobacco. This publication describes in its Examples that a mixture of curdlan, tobacco powder and the like is moistened with water; this material is formed into a sheet form and is cut; and the resultant cut materials are used to produce a smoking article.
Incidentally, in recent years, a tobacco substitute has been demanded to contain a leaf tobacco extract as a flavor component.
However, the method disclosed in the publication relates to a technique of producing a tobacco flavor-generating material which is different from a tobacco substitute containing a leaf tobacco extract, but which contains a solid tobacco material such as tobacco powder or cuts, as a tobacco flavor component.
PCT International Publications WO95/20329 and WO95/20330 disclose a flavor-generating material wherein a flavor component is held in a heat-irreversibly coagulating glucan such as curdlan. This flavor-generating material has excellent stability for holding the flavor component therein, and readily releases the flavor component upon burning or heating, and does not generate any flavor-interfering materials, such as an unpleasant stimulus, pungent or fibrous odor substances upon burning or heating.
However, these PCT International Publications merely disclose a leaf tobacco extract as an example of a hydrophilic flavor component among many flavor components. A leaf tobacco fibrous residue as an extraction residue is never taken into account.